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Friday, 31 August 2012

Bandai have announced that pre-orders of their forthcoming TOS edition of their Star Trek Deck Building Game will come with five bonus cards; featuring illustrations of TOS characters, and some tribbles. As far as I can tell the pre-orders aren't up yet for this edition, which is out in a couple of months, but here are those bonus cards:

On the game's Facebook page they have also posted this teaser image, suggesting something tribblesome on the way in November:

First seen at the Comic Con several weeks ago, DST has now officially announced details and released images of their first Star Trek Select figure, Mr Spock and the Horta. Part way between action figure and sculpture, the select range comes with diorama scenic elements and interchangeable parts, which allow you, in this instance, to present Spock interacting with the Horta, or as a free-standing figure:

For years, Star Trek fans have repeatedly opened hailing frequencies, demanding the return of 7-inch Star Trek figures — well, Diamond Select has heard their transmissions! This winter, DST plans to release the first in a line of Star Trek Select figures, depicting iconic characters from across the Star Trek universe in the 7-inch scale fans have asked for. Each figure will come in DST’s famous Select packaging, and will include a diorama-style display base as well as interchangeable parts to recreate scenes using that diorama. And the first release in the line is the most iconic Star Trek character of all, Mr. Spock!

Depicting Mr. Spock as he appears in the classic episode “Devil in the Dark,” this figure includes a cave diorama with a Horta alien — the first Horta toy ever made! Spock himself will have interchangeable legs for standing or crouching poses, and interchangeable hands to hold a phaser or establish a mental link with the Horta. He even comes with an alternate screaming head! The figure will be available in early 2013, and will be followed by James T. Kirk, as well as numerous other important and fan-requested characters from the Star Trek diaspora. The Marvel Select line celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, so here’s to (at least) ten years of Trek Select!

DST have also released the concept art, which shows all the interchangeable elements. You can get a peak at the Kirk (and Khan) artwork in my previous coverage.

The U.S.S. Enterprise and other starships that participated in the final battle in the Taurus Reach have been remanded to a remote starbase. While evacuees from the station are processed and the ships repaired, restocked, and re-staffed as needed, Captain James T. Kirk is ordered to report to Admiral Heihachiro Nogura, Starbase 47’s second and final commanding officer. Through flashbacks intercut with the ongoing conversation between Kirk and Nogura, the Enterprise’s involvement in the last days of Operation Vanguard—and the conflict between Starfleet and Tholian forces at Starbase 47—is now told from the perspective of Kirk and his crew.

Thursday, 30 August 2012

Amazon has updated it's listing for Joe Corroney's Stuck on Star Trek book, with a new blurb which describes the sticking back "kling-on" fun you'll have with the play book:

An interactive and imaginative way to experience the Star Trek universe using the magic of "Kling-on" pieces. Few television series have had as big an impact on popular culture as Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek. Now Trekkies and fans of all ages can set their phasers to fun as they reenact their favorite scenes from the original Star Trek universe—or create new, uncharted scenarios! Stuck on Star Trek features ten original and instantly recognizable scenes including the Enterprises’s bridge, sick bay, the cantina, the transporter and engine rooms, private quarters, as well as alien environments, which set the stage for more than thirty reusable "Kling-on" stickers featuring everyone’s favorite Starfleet crew: Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Bones, Uhura, Sulu, Scotty, Chekov, Nurse Chapel, their Klingon and Romulan adversaries, the always-doomed Generic Red Shirt Guy, as well as phasers, communicators, universal translators, ships, speech and thought bubbles, costumes, and Tribbles. Lots of Tribbles. With wire-o pages and a foldout stand for easy display, and play, in a cubicle or on any surface, fans can reenact Kirk and Uhura’s groundbreaking kiss, Spock’s use of the Vulcan Death Grip, or beam the crew (except for Generic Red Shirt Guy) up from a hostile and unfriendly planet. Fun, interactive, and portable, Stuck on Star Trek allows every fan to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Meanwhile StarTrek.com has announced another new creative Trek publication coming from Becker and Mayer, Star Trek: Build The U.S.S. Enterprise, a book and paper model kit of the TOS Enterprise. In it you will find:

...everything you’ll need to construct a deluxe paper model of the NCC-1701 that’s nearly a full foot in length. Included are 10 perforated template sheets (with foil accents and metallic printing), push-button LED lights, an audio chip that plays the TOS theme, a step-by-step instruction manual and a paper stand for display. Claudio Dias designed the papercraft Enterprise. Also included is a book – penned by noted comic book writer and Star Trek Vault author Scott Tipton – that examines the history of the Enterprise across the Star Trek franchise.

Apparently due out this very week, DST have revealed the packaging for their latest Star Trek retro cloth figures, and the first TNG characters in the line, Captain Picard and the Borg. The packaging also seems to inform us of a second pairing to come, with Mr Data and a Klingon joining these initial two with advice to "collect all four of these 8 inch fully possible action figures":

Meanwhile UnrealitySF's Jens Deffner, who normally fills me in on all things German, has pointed me towards a snippet of news: In the "About the authors" section of ReDeus: Divine Tales, a recent fantastical anthology with contributions from many regular Trek writers, the section on William Leisner notes that "He is currently at work on a Star Trek Original Series novel". If said novel is intended for the 2013 schedule that will take us up to five TOS novels net year, yikes!

Captain Afsarah Eden couldn’t tear her eyes away from the viewscreen. Voyager moved at maximum warp, the deck below Eden’s boots thrumming with the engines’ strain as stars stretched themselves out in the illusory image that defined this particular version of warp flight.

Eden and her crew were fleeing certain death. And with each second that passed, oblivion was gaining on them. The ship could not maintain its current velocity indefinitely, nor could it safely form a slipstream tunnel to increase its odds of outrunning destruction.

Part of Eden knew that by running, they were only prolonging the inevitable. In some cold, lonely corner of her heart, she had already accepted her own death. But the duty that had bound her to Starfleet and sustained her through the most difficult times of her life demanded that she make this attempt on behalf of those she led.

The temptation, no, the desperate longing she felt to order the ship to come about was becoming more difficult to ignore. Did she need to see the beast, to name it before it devoured them? Was it some absurd definition of honor that called on her to stand her ground, even in the face of annihilation?

Or was it simply the fact that she was tired of running? This monster had already taken too much from her. There was no longer any true victory to be claimed here. She was not fleeing a predator that might grow weary of its chase. She was attempting to outrun something that had all but stripped away every last shred of her own identity. She was incapable of resisting or defying it. It would have her. And given enough time, it might actually bring her to accept that its version of Afsarah Eden was truer than the one she had constructed in fifty-plus years of life.

She belonged to this darkness, and as that certainty struck her with the force of a roaring wave, she began to lose her bearings. Her head grew inexplicably light and her knees buckled. Eden reached her right arm back to steady herself against the command chair in which she knew she would never again sit.

Her eyes briefly registered another person standing beside her, and the motion meant to reorient her became a graceless stagger as she unconsciously rebelled against the sight her mind refused to accept.

I’m dead already.

She had to be.

Eden willed the vision to clear, but the longer she stared open-mouthed at the figure next to her, the more that figure seemed to coalesce and solidify.

Amazon have added a listing for the second omnibus of the series (collecting issues five to eight), which seems to be using Woodward's cover for issue five. They expect it to come out at the end of January, just a month after the final issue.

2013 spoils use for choice when it comes to Star Trek calendars - Universe Publishing have taken the reins with the main US calendars, offering four different Trek designs, including the latest editions of the long running TOS and Ships of the Line calendars. Meanwhile ML Publishing has stepped in to celebrate TNG's 25th anniversary with the first TNG calendar in years. In Germany Panini Books have released a Star Trek movie poster calendar. And in the UK Danilo have also got two Trek calendars, a second TOS calendar, and what has until now been a mystery; what Amazon lists as the "Official Star Trek Ships 2013 Calendar". With a week to go until expected publication, Amazon has put up the covers for this final calendar, revealing to be specifically focusing on the ships of the latest Star Trek movie. Each month features either a still from the film, or concept art, with lots of the Enterprise, joined by the Kelvin, Narada, Jellyfish, and shuttlecraft. There aren't any new images here, but for any fans of the new ship designs from the film it will be a pretty nice way to get some big prints of the new ships. Here are the front and back covers:

Thursday, 23 August 2012

Mondo are back with their latest amazing Star Trek poster, which this time is based on the classic episode, The Corbomite Maneuver. The dazzling design by Todd Slater will be available in a standard black edition of 360, and a limited red variation of 130. As ever you'll have to be fast if you want one, keep an eye on Mondo's twitter for an on sale announcement TODAY, and then hope you manage to get one in the seconds they typically take to sell out!

IDW have released their November solicitations, which include four new Star Trek titles. We'll be getting an alternate timeline mirror universe, and two different Borg time travel stories, including what looks and sounds like a TARDIS trip to (Bad) Wolf 359:Star Trek (ongoing) #15
Written by Mike Johnson, with art by Stephen Molnar, and a cover by Tim Bradstreet.

The countdown to next year's STAR TREK sequel continues here, in an all-new re-imagining of the classic "Mirror Universe" story! Witness the transformation of the new Enterprise crew in part one of this blockbuster story, overseen by STAR TREK writer/producer Roberto Orci!

Assimilation2 #7
Written by Scott and David Tipton, with art by J.K. Woodward and Gordon Purcell, and covers by Woodward.

The Doctor and his companions must travel into the past and navigate through one of the Federation's most crushing defeats in order to prevent an even worse fate in the present!

Hive #3
Written by Brannon Braga, Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett, with art and cover by Joe Corroney.

The Borg story to end all Borg stories warps towards it thrilling conclusion! In the far-flung future the Borg Queen faces off against the Borg King... an ancient Locutus! The stakes have never been so high, as the fate of the Enterprise -- and the entire galaxy -- hang in the balance!

The countdown to the next STAR TREK movie continues here. In "The Return of the Archons!" Kirk, Spock, and the crewÂ search for a lost Starfleet ship that may hold clues to the future of the entire Federation and in "The Truth About Tribbles!" the crew of the EnterpriseÂ encounters the classic alien species in an ALL-NEW story inspired by the fan-favorite episode.

Being a starship captain is tough work. You have hundreds of lives depending on your leadership, your decisions, and your grace under fire (and under the ever-annoying presence of Q). When you need a moment to collect your thoughts, you don't do it with a teabag stuffed with the brown dust that is the byproduct of real tea. No, Sir. You drink real, genuine Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.

Star Trek has given their seal of approval for this official blend of Tea, Earl Grey, Hot, just like Jean-Luc Picard would drink. Of course, you don't have a replicator, so you'll have to scoop out this blend of premium black tea with bergamot into your favorite looseleaf brewer. Start with water just off the boil for 2-3 minutes and you'll have the perfect Captain's tea: fresh, zesty, exhilarating, slightly dry to the nose, with a rounded and balanced orange rind flavor. You'll be making those tough decisions in no time... or maybe after another cup...

Star Trek Online has launched its new Sovereign class variant, the Regent class, and announced the special ability that comes with it, the Riker maneuver. Here's how they describe it:

The Regent Class comes equipped with a Metreon Gas Canisters Console Mod. Metreon Gas is highly unstable, but when properly stored it can be safely replicated and transported. This Console Mod allows you to vent the gas from your Bussard Collectors and ignite it at will. The resulting explosions can be extremely devastating. This Console Mod can be equipped in any console slot. It may only be equipped on Sovereign variants, including the Assault Cruiser and Assault Cruiser Refit.

The Assault Cruiser Refit: Regent Class also comes with a prototype Wide Angle Quantum Torpedo Launcher. This torpedo launcher has been upgraded with a Wide Angle targeting system that allows the torpedo to lock onto targets that would normally be outside of standard firing arcs, providing a 180-degree targeting arc. This launcher can be equipped on any starship, but you may only equip one.

They have also released orthographic views of the new design:

Meanwhile STO's Thomas Marrone has released a development patch for the new design on his tumblr blog. Looks like this:

The nice people at Paramount Interactive and Digital Extreme have released a new trailer for next year's inbetwequel Star Trek video game:

They've also put out a load of new screencaps, and some concept art. Here are a few of my favourites, including a closer look at the new Gorn, and the strange multi-directional gravity environment of part of the game. (Even more images are after the jump.):

Star Trek fans--or Trekkies--have been collecting Star Trek souvenirs, artifacts, and memorabilia for many years, and they'll be thrilled with this brand-new book and CD-ROM package. Scheduled for publication in time to coincide with release of the latest Star Trek movie, as well as the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation's TV debut, this amazing book delights fans with--

-A spectacular double-page spread detailing the history of the starship Enterprise in words and vivid illustrations

-Spreads and gatefolds with 3D features illustrating the Enterprise from all angles, including a side-on cutaway image showing the craft's interior

-Views of the ship's bridge, showing the captain's chair, main consoles, and the functions that the consoles control

Enclosed with the book is a fabulous CD-ROM that gives viewers a detailed tour of the Enterprise . This remarkable software program was developed in close cooperation with the creators of the Star Trek sets that were used in the films and on the television series. On Board the U.S.S. Enterprise offers Trekkies a once-in-a-lifetime ticket to one of the most popular and beloved sci-fi adventures of all time.

With the specific reference to only Picard I presume this is just about the Enterprise-D, the new Amazon listing title also suggests this is a TNG book. I am therefore maintaining my hope that this might be the book form of the cancelled Build the USS Enterprise-D part work magazine.

While that magazine is in mind, one of the people that worked on it posted a sample to their flickr stream. Here's the deck 7 blueprint:

Following on from the US disc replacement scheme, to correct audio problems on the TNG season onebluray set, a UK version has now been put in place. The details of the UK version also tell us how we'll be able to tell between corrected and faulty sets, when new copies with the correct start hitting stores:

We have discovered an anomaly in the English 7.1 DTS Master Audio track in our Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 Blu-ray Box set. There are some episodes that inadvertently had their front channel designations incorrectly mapped, resulting in an undesired playback experience when listening to them in a 7.1 or 5.1 Surround Sound environment. In addition, we have taken this opportunity to correct a few minor issues that were found on other episodes.

We are quickly working to remedy the situation by recalling affected product and replacing it. Corrected versions can be identified by the appearance of a red Delta on the spine and will contain barcode no: 5051368241838 for ease of identification. If you purchased the box set prior to the recall, this will be replaced and will be made available free of charge. Please email stng@sonydadc.com for details regarding the replacement program. You may also call 01992 657 739 Monday-Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

We strive to provide our fans the best Blu-ray experience possible and sincerely apologise for this inconvenience.

Meanwhile the extended cut of The Measure of a Man, coming to the season two set continued to get more exciting: TrekCore report that the extended cut is now confirmed, and that both it and the original cut will be included. The new cut will also include some new effects shots, and will be getting an audio commentary, from the writer, Melinda Snodgrass,director Robert Scheerer, and Mike Okuda. I am particularly pleased about this, as the one thing I really noticed the absence of on the season one set, was a single audio commentary; hopefully this will be the first of many in future sets.

Friday, 17 August 2012

Also available at last weekend's Star Trek convention were an assortment of new Star Trek T-shirts, which are also available from the organiser's website. There were a couple of Japanese inspired designs:

Hive Mind

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